Thai Tour - Tourist Information : Speak Thai III

SPEAK THAI (Part III)

As you know, Thailand is a land of smiles. The Thai people are easy to approach and will be all smiling when you try to speak to them in Thai and that will add to your pleasure during your stay in Thailand.

There is one important thing you should remember in learning to speak Thai, that is the Thai language has five tones with four tonal marks. They are the mid tone, low tone, falling tone, high tone and rising tone. There are many groups of words which have the same sound but with different tones and meanings. For example, the word suai can mean bad luck (suai), bribe (suai1) or beautiful (suai4), depending on the tone.

To prevent you from pronouncing with the wrong tone and unintentionally cause misunderstanding to the listeners, here we will use four numbers to represent four tones: 1 = low tone, 2 = falling tone, 3 = high tone and 4 = rising tone. The mid-level tone syllable will be unmarked.

Listed below are some useful Thai words and phrases for travel in Thailand, with their romanized spellings, tonal marks and their meanings.

(Note : Thais use the word 'khrap' (for men) and 'kha' (for women) to end the sentence or phrase spoken to show politeness. For example, when you want to say 'hello' in Thai, if you are a man, you say 'sawatdi khrap' and if a woman, 'sawatdi kha'.)

TIME & DAYS

	ki1 mong laeo3	What time is it now?
	wan ni3	today
	phrung2 ni3	tomorrow
	muea2 wan ni3	yesterday
	ton chao3	in the morning
	ton thiang2	at noon
	ton bai1	in the afternoon
	ton yen	in the evening
	ton klang khuen	at night
	wan a thit3	Sunday
	wan jan	Monday
	wan ang khan	Tuesday
	wan phut3	Wednesday
	wan pha3 ru3 hat1 (sa1 bo di)	Thursday
	wan suk1	Friday
	wan sao4	Saturday

FOOD & EATS

	a han4 chao3	breakfast
	a han4 klang wan	lunch
	a han4 yen	dinner
	khao2 plao1	plain rice
	khao2 phat1	fried rice
	khao2 phat1 mu4	fried rice with pork
	khao2 tom2	rice gruel
	kuai3 tiao4 (nam3)	noodle (soup)
	tom2 yam kung2	spicy shrimp soup
	som2 tam	spicy papaya salad
	kha1 nom4 pang	bread
	mu4	pork
	nuea3	beef
	pla	fish
	kai1	chicken
	kai1 yang2	roasted chicken
	kung2	shrimp, prawn
	pla muek1	squid
	pu	crab
	khai1	egg
	khai1 dao	fried egg
	khai1 tom2	boiled egg
	khai1 jiao	omelette
	phon4 la3 mai3	fruit
	phak1	vegetable
	nam3 yen	cold water
	nam3 khaeng4	ice
	nam3 ron3	hot water
	ka fae ron3 (yen)	hot (cold) coffee
	cha ron3 (yen)	hot (cold) tea
	nam3 som2 khan3	orange juice
	a roi1 (mak2)	(very) delicious, tasty
	phet1 koen pai	too spicy
	wan4 koen pai	too sweet
	khem koen pai	too salty